Page 46 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

4 . L I D D E D B O W L

THE PORCELAIN: Japanese (Imari), early eighteenth century
THE SILVER MOUNTS: French (Paris), circa i/zo
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3
HEIGHT: ii in. (27.9 cm); WIDTH: i ft., i /8 in. (34 cm); DIAMETER: io /s in. (27.5 cm)
79.01.123

DESCRIPTION
The deep circular bowl is mounted with silver
around the foot, the lip of the bowl, and the lid. There
is a silver handle at each side and a silver finial sur-
mounts the lid.
The exterior of the bowl is decorated with irregu-
larly shaped overlapping panels of flowering chrysan-
themum, prunus, and tree peonies in deep underglaze
blue and overglaze iron red and gilt. The interior is sim-
ilarly decorated with three sprays of flowers: chrysanthe-
mum, peony, and prunus. They frame a central panel of
a classical mountainous river landscape within a double
circle of blue.
The lid is in two stages (fig. 4A), the lower consisting FIG. 4A. The lid disassembled.
of an inverted shallow dish of Imari porcelain, decorated
on its exterior with a loose chrysanthemum scroll with
green and yellow enamels over underglaze blue, the base A gadrooned molding encircles the domed lid midway,
with prunus sprays surrounding a budding branch. The separating it from the inverted dish. The finial is in the
interior (fig. 46) is richly decorated with a central formal form of a foliate cup heaped with berries; it is attached
chrysanthemum head—from which radiate panels of to a pin that passes through both components of the lid,
flowering branches and iron-red and gilt chrysanthemum securing them together with a nut.
heads scattered over gilt cell-patterned blue grounds—
and with pale turquoise and green enamels. The upper MARKS None.
stage of the lid is a domed lid taken from another vase,
with its lip cut down. It is decorated with flowers and COMMENTARY
foliage of similar color; four of the flowers are molded The elements of this piece—the bowl, plate, and
in low relief and gilt, two with brocaded petals. small lid—were all made as export ware. The so-called
The lip of the bowl is encircled by a silver gadrooned "Imari" decoration was influenced by Chinese ceramics,
molding, flanked at each side by a handle linked to the where underglaze blue and overglaze red and gold ap-
foot by a pierced mount of scrolled, foliate, and interlac- peared at a considerably earlier date than they did in the
ing forms, attached above and below by a pinned hinge Japanese kilns.
(fig. 4C). The rim of the foot takes the form of a simple The silver mounts are unmarked. An Imari bowl in
gadrooned molding. The lower edge of the lid is sur- the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, bears silver
rounded by a deep band of silver chased with strapwork mounts of the same design. 1 The Munich mounts are
cartouches that enclose fleurons against a matted ground. marked with a fleur-de-lys, the Paris mark for the years

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